1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for reading data stored in a storage medium, such as a memory card, and executing predetermined processing of the read data.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, rapidly expanding use of digital equipment, such as a personal computer (hereinafter abbreviated to a “PC”), a digital still camera (DSC), a PDA (Personal Digital Assistance), and a cell phone, has quickly increased a demand for storage media for storing image data, such as a memory card. Also, with increased variety and network adaptability of the digital equipment having data input/output terminals, various types of data files including JPEG, text, TIFF and WAVE, are handled using storage media.
Under such background, a printer, a composite machine, etc. having the read/write-enable function with respect to a storage medium, such as a memory card, has been developed so that print, FAX transmission, LCD display, and voice output can be directly made from the storage medium with no aid of PC.
One known composite machine having that function comprises a data reading unit for reading a plurality of original image data from a removable image storage medium which stores the plurality of original image data, an image synthesizing unit for synthesizing an image per color component from the read original image data, and an image forming unit for forming, on a recording material, the images of respective color components synthesized by the image synthesizing unit in a plane-sequential manner, the image synthesizing unit employing the image storage medium as a work memory (see, e.g., Patent Reference 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-331757).
In the composite machine having various functions including print, however, a liquid crystal display (LCD) has a smaller display area and the number of keys is smaller as compared with PC. Therefore, key-in operation is complex and operability is poor when trying to read various types of data files stored in the storage medium and to display the processing procedure adapted for the type of the read data file.